1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereo camera system and a stereo optical module which can be mounted in a mobile body such as a vehicle, a marine vessel, an aircraft or a robot, or a non-mobile body such as a monitoring camera system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various kinds of propositions have been made with respect to an imaging device which captures a so-called stereo image including left and right two images having parallaxes in one image.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 211469-1999 proposes a stereo image processing system in which a stereo imaging unit (a stereo optical module) which captures a stereo image by using a pair of cameras is combined with an image processing unit (a central control unit) which processes a captured stereo image. A non-volatile memory which stores camera characteristic data is provided in this stereo imaging unit in order to correct irregularities in characteristics of the pair of cameras. Further, when such a stereo imaging unit and a stereo image processing unit are connected with each other through a communication line, correction data stored in the non-volatile memory can be transferred/output to the stereo image processing unit through the communication line. Further, stereo image data imaged by the cameras in the stereo imaging unit is output as analog type video signals to the stereo image processing unit through the communication line, and a correction arithmetic operation is performed in the stereo image processing unit based on these analog type video signals and the correction data input from the stereo imaging unit.
Furthermore, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 328413-1999 proposes an imaging device (a stereo optical module) which is connected with an image processing unit (a central control unit) through a one-system analog image signal cable, thereby selectively transmitting each stereo image by using this image signal cable.
Moreover, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-88609 proposes a vehicle-mounted camera which can transmit an output from a temperature sensor to an image recognition device through a serial communication line by connecting the vehicle-mounted camera (a stereo optical module) with the image recognition device (a central control unit) by using a video signal line and the serial communication line and further having mounted the temperature sensor which detects a temperature in the vehicle-mounted camera.
Additionally, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-259966 proposes a system comprising a plurality of vehicle-mounted cameras (stereo optical modules) and a periphery recognition device (a central control unit).